Hi everyone! I’m super excited to show you my interpretation of Pantone’s infamous color of the year 2014: Radiant Orchid! Now, there have been many nail art based on the orchid theme since the beginning of this year. Naturally, I wanted to put my own twist on it and create something unique and have yet been done. And my Radiant Orchid Nail Petals nail art was born!

Pantone’s executive director describes Radiant Orchid as “a captivating harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones” and I knew I wanted to use colors that represented each of the 3 main colors that Radiant Orchid embodies with such depth and beauty.

To choose my colors properly, I set out to do some real life research. It so happens that my mom is an amazing green thumb, in contrary to my yellow thumbs that are too talented at withering and wilting any plants they touch. On top of that, she LOVES orchids and is quite a collector of them! Well, she generously offered her own photos as reference material. I chose to use all of her phalaenopsis images since they were the closest to the Pantone Radiant Orchid. Look at the exquisite colors and detail on the petals!

The colors I chose were a combination of my mom’s orchids and the various Radiant Orchid shades on Pantone’s website. I felt like I really needed to use at least 3 to properly represent the overall feel. I think I did just that. What do think?

Shades used – as usual, since piCture pOlish is my largest collection to date with the most comprehensive color palette and consistently dependable formula, it remains my go-to polish brand for nail art. And although I couldn’t find the exact shade matching Radiant Orchid, I was able to find all the shades I needed! I included swatches for you at the bottom of the post 🙂

Pantone’s executive director further describes Radiant Orchid as blooming “with confidence and magical warmth that intrigues the eye and sparks the imagination.” Well, looking at these amazing photographs of orchids certainly got my creative juices going. Since most, if not all, of the other nail art out there are paintings of orchard flowers that span across the nails, I decided to zero in on the macro level and paint the detailed and intriguing texture of a single orchid petal – thus the name: Radiant Orchid Nail Petals! I feel like the final look is really stunning and I’m in LOVE with it!

Let’s take a look at how to achieve the Radiant Orchid Nail Petal look on your own nails!

The process is really quite simple, but it does require patience and time. If you’re short on either, like I often am, you can still wear this look by painting the petal on one accent nail and finishing the other nails as skittles with simple pink, fuchsia and purple.

▲ Step 2: Using a making sponge dipped in some water and acetone, pick up a diluted layer of piCture pOlish Flirt (or any pink fuchsia) and lightly sponge the mid section of the nail while leaving the tip of the nail white. This is the mimic the light pink speckles and the white outline on the orchid petals.

▲ Step 3: Using the same sponging technique as Step 2, lightly sponge piCture pOlish Focus and Ultra Violence on the top half of the nails, ending at the half moon. Make sure you sponge as light as you can to only add tiny bits of color while still able to see the white base peeking through from underneath.

▲ Step 4: Using a clean up brush dipped in acetone, remove the excess sponging around the cuticles. Or you can tape your cuticles with scotch tape if you have time. Then seal in the sponging layer with a quick dry top coat. This will protect the sponged base and also help blend all the colors together. It’s my favorite part of sponging, to see the magic happen when the top coat seamlessly fuse all the colors together 🙂

▲ Step 5: Using a striper brush and piCture pOlish Ultra Violence, paint the 3 main veins of the nail petal. You can of course use any other brand that have colors in the same hues and shades. But, I especially love the effect of Ultra Violence here because of the tiny shimmers, holographic particles and glitter that help to represent the natural shimmer and sparkle on the real orchid petals.

▲ Step 6: Using a thinner striper brush and Ultra Violence, paint in the thinner veins that brach out from the main veins. Seal with top coat and VOILA! You have gorgeous Radiant Orchid Nail Petals on your hands!

See, the nail art process is really not that difficult when you have found the right colors and the simple explanation above! But look at the details and the complexity of the finished nails! Quite mind blowing if you ask me!

Radiant Orchid is truly a beautiful shade. This nail art design is incredibly versatile for pairing with outfits whether you wear every nail with the petals or a skittle manicure with a nail petal accent. Regardless, your hands and nails will perfectly complement any pink, red and purple for a girly and sexy look or add energy and pops of color to more fresh shades like light and deep greens, earthy tones like and olives and browns, or neutrals such as white, black, beige and gray! So, play with it and have fun!

If you recreate this nail art look, be sure to tag @lacquertude and hashtag #lacquertude on Instagram. You can follow my account here, or post your photo on my Facebook wall.

Finally, I’ll leave you with swatches of all of the colors I used in this nail art, because let’s face it, each is beautiful and unique in their own right! And when all else fails, you can always wear them alone without any nail art and still echo the Radiant Orchid theme! But I believe you can paint the nail art like I did! So, try, have patience, don’t give up and give yourself grace! Our own work is usually much prettier to the world than to our own critical eyes.